DAWET ! it is black not green

 What will be in your mind when you heard the word Dawet ?

I bet you will imagine a glass of green cendol served with santan, and palm sugar. Yeaaah, your mind will cross to Dawet Ayu Banjarnegara, a kind of Dawet you can find anywhere you go.

How if the cendol is not Green but Black? It is weird, isn’t it? yeaaah, but this happens. That’s called DawetIreng. It is weird, rare, yet unique. I find it in my hometown, Purworejo.

One day, My friend and I had a trip to Jogja. It was two years ago, and that was the first time for me to taste the delicious drink from my hometown. It was weird since Purworejo was my hometown, yet I had never tasted Dawet ireng. Well, back to the story. That was a shiny day, the sun was burning us, and we felt so tired, and sweated. When we passed Jalan Jogja in Purworejo, we decided to have a rest for a while just to get some drink. And yeaaaah, we saw a place looked like a hut in the side of street. I could see the writing on the hut “Dawet IRENG”. Yeeah we went there to buy Dawet Ireng, so that we could refresh our energy. The seller, a woman aged around forty, welcomed us with nice smile and greeting. Then, I felt welcomed and relaxed being there. I sat down while I was looking at the beautiful sceneries there. It was surrounded by rice farms, and I could see many hills and Sumbing Mountain from there. It was great sceneries and I could feel the wind clapped my back. Actually, the stall was not big. It was only a hut, simple hut in the side of road with two long chairs and one long table. The place was made by bamboo. Most of it was covered by bamboo. The floor and wall was made from bamboo. And the roof was covered by coarse grass.

And finally, what we were waiting for was coming.. A cup of Dawet Ireng. A lot of Cendol Ireng kept silent in the bottom of the cup. I mixed it till the ice, palm sugar, santan, and cendol ireng mixed in one. It became so unique. I wonder why the cendol is black. It made it looked like horror. However, I was so excited to eat it, I meant to drink it. first, I felt the coolness because of the ice and santan. Then I could taste the pure sweetness of palm sugar. It was so delicious, and yummmmyyyy.

While we were drinking, the seller told us that the blackness of cendol was made of the ashes of merang (rice straw). The ashes was blended to the water and it was filtered. Then it was mixed to the sago flour-the main ingredient of cendol-. That’s why the cendol color became black, so black. The coloring was natural, it was not from textile coloring, or other synthetic color. It was pure from nature.

Actually there was no significance difference taste of Dawet Ireng and other Dawet. The only thing that made it different was the color and the flour. Mostly dawet was made of rice flour, yet this Dawet Ireng was made of Sago flour. However, Dawet always tasted delicious especially if we drink it near rice farms. We could feel the village atmosphere.

And yeaaah,, last but not least.. if you go to Purworejo or mostly known as Pordjo, Don’t forget to buy Dawet Ireng khas butuh Purworejo. You can find it almost along the roadside of Jalan Jogja, and Butuh. And it only cost for Rp. 2.500, 00 Yeeeaaaaahhhhh!